1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technical field of image processing and, more particularly, to a system and method for processing a television (TV) picture-out-picture (POP).
2. Description of Related Art
The capability of displaying multiple pictures is generally provided to a high-definition TV to thereby increase the added value. The multiple pictures can be displayed as a picture-in-picture (PIP) or picture-out-picture (POP) type. For example, FIG. 1A is a schematic view of a typical PIP, and FIG. 1B is a schematic view of a typical POP. As shown in FIG. 1B, the POP has two pictures that are required to have the identical image quality and size, or almost the same. Accordingly, the hardware configuration for the POP is more complicated than that for the PIP.
A typical way uses two sets of hardware to decode the two pictures of the POP. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a typical hardware configuration for performing a POP. The two pictures may be input by different image sources and have different sizes and formats. Accordingly, for achieving the identical output performance and size on the two pictures, the picture processors 210, 220 are independent, and also the scalers 230, 240 are independent for scaling the two pictures respectively, one for the main picture and the other for the sub-picture, thereby obtaining the POP capability.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a POP performed by a typical TV. The pictures A, B are different input images, with different video frame sizes and formats, and processed by the picture processors 210, 220 and the scalers 230, 240 to thereby produce the output pictures A′, B′ respectively. Further, the output pictures A′, B′ are combined by the image synthesizer 250 and output to a display panel for concurrent display. However, for implementing the POP capability, the chip with the above devices requires a large area, and the cost is relatively increased, resulting in lowering the competitiveness.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved TV with the POP capability to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.